Oregon Fly Fishing Report

Cory Godell Reports on 3.10.2016

Trout season is off to a good start. My two favorite clients and I made our way down to our local sportsman show. While we were there they both hooked into a some nice trout. Now it’s time to head back to the river.

Winter Steel
So far we’ve been lucky. With the storms hitting our area, the Sandy River is holding strong. The river level has definitely been going up and down, but with the low freezing level it hasn’t blown out  in the last several weeks. With water levels going up and down, it has made for a steady stream of steelhead coming into the Sandy. There isn’t much time left so if you want a chance to catch a winter steelhead on a fly, you better get here soon. We are generally done fishing the Sandy by Early April and won’t start up again until sometime in December.

Owyhee River
Dry fly season is now amongst us. Blue Wings have begun hatching on the Owyhee. Depending on the year, usually by late March, the Skwalas start showing and that’s when the fishing really starts to heat up. Then by the first week in April the hatch is usually in full swing and it will carry right on through most of the month. I will be heading that way for my first Skwala trip of the season in just about three weeks.

We still have a couple open days for anyone interested in catching brown trout on big dry flies.

Deschutes River
Now that the Deschutes trout season is open year round, it’s been nice to get some bonus days on the river. March is the time of season that hatches start heating up on the Deschutes. Of late there’s been some good Blue Wing Olive hatches coming off around one o'clock. In another few weeks the March Browns will start showing. This can be an amazing time to be on the river. If you hit the hatch right, you may have one of the best dry fly sessions you will ever have.

Don’t forget, Salmon Fly season is closing in on us quick. So if you like hucking big dries along grassy banks or under trees and watching them getting engulfed by big rainbows, you had better get a hold of us soon. Salmon Flies usually start showing up around the end of the second week of May and go through first week or so of June.

Skwala vs. Salmon fly Skwalas and Salmon Flies are both big ole dry flies. And as you might guess trout love them both. The real question is do you want to fish Skwalas on a small river (Owyhee) for brown trout or Salmon Flies on a bigger river for rainbow. Which ever you prefer let us know soon.